Czech Foreign Ministry says nerve gas tested in Brno was different from
that used in UK attack

The Czech Foreign Ministry has ruled out the possibility that the nerve
agent tested in the Czech Republic could have been used in the attack
against Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain.

The Foreign Ministry issued the statement in response to President
Zeman’s claim that a minute amount of the nerve-gas Novichok had been
produced and tested in the Czech Republic. The president was citing a
military intelligence report.

The Foreign Ministry said that a few millilitres of a nerve gas of the
Novichok family labelled A-230 was produced, tested, and destroyed by the
Czech Military Research Institute in Brno. “The nerve-paralysing poison
used in the U.K. attack is called A-234 and is therefore a different
variant than the one tested by the Czech military institute for purposes of
defence" the ministry statement said.

It moreover stressed that the substance tested in Brno was immediately
disposed of by the laboratory and is not stored anywhere, as was the case
with the A230 substance. The Brno institute functions with the approval of
the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Meanwhile, President Zeman has come under fire for disclosing classified
information from a military intelligence report. According to Czech law
this is punishable by up to three years in prison, but the president has
immunity from prosecution and can only be impeached on grounds of treason.